Chapter 8: An Awkward Moment
King Derek's POV:
“Your highness! I beg a thousand pardons and I am not questioning your personal affairs…. But….” Maximus questioned me.
“But?” I questioned him sternly. “Your highness….. you could have a thousand princesses at your disposal, but you are taking an aspirian princess as your bride…. Don’t you know their history with our Kingdom and -?” he said when I cut him off suddenly.
“I know their story…. Apparently in old times their kingdom showed us no mercy to our land and completely butchered our Kingdom…. Leaving hardly any women and children in the midst of the Kingdom…. Making our land desolate…. My father told me the stories as a young child…. But…. that doesn’t matter to me. She showed me something different on the battlefield that day, Maximus…. She showed me mercy… nothing like the stories my father told me as a child…. Their kingdom and their people have been enemies of our people and Kingdom for centuries…. This is why I told you to keep this under wraps that we have the princess of Aspire in our care and in our safety of refuge…. This one… is different… Maximus…..” I told my army commander captain. He looked at me with a serious expression on his face as he swallowed a breath and didn’t know how to react, whether shocked, disgusted or ashamed or angry. Maximus was the type of person to close his feelings and emotions and never showed how he truly felt at times. He took a risk questioning me on my decision but because of his respect and loyalty to the crown, he kept his mouth shut and bowed to me as he walked out of the lookout as we were standing on the balcony overlooking the kingdom in my private quarters. Before Maximus walked out and had his hand on the door.
As he turned his head and glanced towards me, “I understand, your highness….. my loyalty and duty is to protect the crown and the one wearing it at all costs…. I just hope you know what you are doing…. Because…. if she…. Or anyone of that Kingdom tries to harm the crown in any way shape or form, I will show no mercy….I don’t care who it may be….” Maximus glared at me and walked out of the room.
Maximus’ was always there to protect me whenever there was an assignation attempt on my life when I was younger. There was an instance where I got shot by a poisonous arrow once as a young prince and the thought of losing me under his care of duty almost sent him into a madness, this is why he is overprotective of me since then.
I understand where he is coming from, however I don’t think this Asprian princess, who will be queen once I marry her, will harm me in any way. If she wanted to, she would have done it by now.
But…. how would the people of my kingdom take it, that I have taken a princess of Aspire as my wife, once they hear the news that I’ve married her? All these thoughts ran through my head, however my heart and mind felt at ease just thinking about marrying the woman. I’ve…. Never felt like this before….. this feeling, what is it? I thought to myself as I looked down at my sword in my sheath and out my hand on the edge of the sword, remembering the day I met her in battle just last week…. That determined and courageous look on her face as if she never feared anything, not even death.
“My fight if not with you, knight warrior, please move out of my way” she commanded me on the battlefield and went on her way. Heh, if she only knew she was commanding the Shadow King on the battlefield that day, would she have shown me mercy the way she did, but she took a chance…. I chuckled to myself fort a moment just thinking that this was going to be an interesting journey towards my goal…. My goal…. Is to unite with the princess of Aspire and together combine forces… I need her forces to go on conquest to conquer distance lands so that neither of our Kingdoms will be under threat of invasion and to take vengeance on mine enemies who have…. Who killed my mother and disgraced us…. I looked out into the distance as the moon was at its’ peak and it was a clear starry night with the wind breezing across my face. I spread out my arms on both sides and took in a deep breath, breathing in the night air into my lungs and breathed out opening my eyes as I relaxed and settled in my heart to marry this woman. I proposed to marry her and this is what I am going to do. I know Maximus is worried, but he will get over it. Perhaps he may take a liking to my new wife and learn to protect her too eventually. Perhaps she will too win him over somehow…. Heheh I chuckled to myself as I turned around and walked back into the palace and decided to go for a hot bath.
As I walked into the palace bath room, which was a large room that had in built hot springs into the bed rock of the palace in the outside gardens of the palace behind the castle.
There was black / grey stone walls that surrounded the cherry blossom garden with green grass with natural built hot springs that originated from the volcanic mountains around us.
I got undressed and completely naked as I slowly walked into the hot spring bath and as the mist of the steam cleared a little, to my surprise I saw a woman in the bad, “Who is there?” I asked in defence mode, when all of the sudden the woman stood up affright before me and lo and behold…. It was my future wife…. Princess Cassia. Her face went entirely red as she was trembling covering herself…. She…. Was completely naked with nothing covering her, except her long golden brown hair and covering herself with her hands…
I looked at her with a poker face expression as she tried to cover herself hysterically. “Princess…..” I said under my lips as she looked at me with eyes wide opened and her face going completely red as a tomato…. She looked like she didn’t know what to do….